Now that we know that desires generate progress, let’s see how we’ve handled them throughout history. For the most part, we’ve had two ways of manipulating desires:

1. Turning everything into habits, “taming” desires, or harnessing them into a daily routine;
2. Diminishing and suppressing them.

Most religions use the first option, “tagging” each act with a reward. To motivate us to do what is considered good, our tutors and those around us reward us with positive feedback whenever we do something “right.” As we grow older, the rewards gradually stop, but our actions have become “tagged” in our minds as rewarding.

Once we are used to something, it becomes second nature to us. And when we act according to our nature, we always feel comfortable with ourselves.

The second way to handle our desires—by diminishing them—is primarily used by Eastern teachings. This approach follows a simple rule: Better to not want, than to want and not have, or in the words of Lao-tzu (604 BC – 531 BC), “Manifest plainness; embrace simplicity; reduce selfishness; have few desires” (The Way of Lao-tzu).

For many years, it seemed that we were getting by with just these two methods. Although we did not get what we wanted—because of the rule that when you have what you want, you no longer want it—the chase itself was gratifying. Whenever a new desire came along, we believed that this one would surely fulfill our wishes. We were hopeful as long as we kept dreaming; and where there is hope, there is life, even without actually fulfilling those dreams.

But our desires grew. They have become increasingly hard to satisfy with unfulfilled dreams, with an empty Kli, devoid of the filling it was meant to have. And thus, the two ways—taming desires and diminishing them—are facing a major challenge. When we can’t diminish our desires, we have no choice but to look for a way to satisfy them. In that state, we either abandon the old ways, or somehow combine them with a new way of searching.

A New Desire In Town

We have said that there are four degrees to the will to receive: a) physical desires for food, reproduction, and family; b) wealth; c) power and respect, sometimes separated into two distinct groups; and d) the desire for knowledge.

The four degrees are divided into two groups: 1) animal desires, the first degree, are shared by all living creatures; and 2) human desires, degrees two, three, and four, which are uniquely human. The latter group is the one that’s brought us to where we are today.

But today there is a new desire—the fifth degree in the evolution of the will to receive. As we’ve said in the previous chapter, The Book of Zohar writes that at the end of the 20th century a new desire will appear.

This new desire is not just another desire; it is the culmination of all the degrees of desires preceding it. It is not only the most powerful desire, but it contains unique features that differentiate it from all other desires.

When Kabbalists talk about the heart, they aren’t referring to the physical heart, but to desires of the first four degrees. But the fifth level of desire is essentially different. It wants satisfaction only from spirituality, not from anything physical. This desire is also the root of the spiritual growth one is destined to experience. For this reason, Kabbalists call this desire the “point in the heart.”

A New Method For A New Desire

When the “point in the heart” appears, one begins to shift from wanting worldly pleasures—sex, money, power, and knowledge—to wanting spiritual pleasures. Because this is a new kind of pleasure that we’re seeking, we also need a new method to satisfy it. The method to satisfy the new desire is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” (the wisdom of how to receive).

To understand this new method, let’s look at the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah, whose aim is to fulfill the desire for spirituality, and the methods used to fulfill all other desires. With our “ordinary” desires, we can usually define what we want quite easily. If I want to eat, I look for food; if I want respect, I act in a way that I believe will make people respect me.

But because I don’t quite know what spirituality is, how can I know what to do to attain it? Because in the beginning, we don’t realize that what we really want is to discover the Creator, we also don’t realize that we will need a new method to search for Him. This desire is so utterly different from anything we’ve ever felt before, it is unclear even to us. This is why the method of discovering and satisfying it is designated “The Wisdom of the Hidden.”

As long as all we wanted was food, social status, and—at most, knowledge—we didn’t need The Wisdom of the Hidden. We had no use for it, so it remained hidden. But its concealment does not mean that it was abandoned. On the contrary, for 5,000 years Kabbalists have been polishing and refining it for the time when people would need it. They have been writing simpler and simpler books to make Kabbalah understandable and more accessible.

They knew that in the future the whole world would need it, and they wrote that this would happen when the fifth level of desire appeared. Now this level has appeared, and those who recognize it feel the need for the wisdom of Kabbalah.

In Kabbalistic terms: To receive pleasure, you must have a Kli for it, a well-defined desire for a very specific pleasure. The appearance of a Kli forces our brains to search for a way to fill it with Ohr (Light). Now that many of us have “points in our hearts,” the wisdom of Kabbalah presents itself as a means to satisfy our desire for spirituality.

Tikkun – The Correction Of The Will To Receive

We have already said that the will to receive is a Catch-22: when I finally receive what I’ve been looking for, I almost immediately stop wanting it. And of course, without wanting it, I cannot enjoy it.

The desire for spirituality comes with its own pre-installed, unique mechanism to avoid this catch. This mechanism is called Tikkun (correction). A desire of the fifth level must first be “coated” with this Tikkun before it can be used efficiently and pleasurably.

Understanding the Tikkun will solve many common misunderstandings about Kabbalah. The will to receive has been the driving force behind every progress and change in the history of humanity. But the desire to receive has always been one to receive pleasure for self-gratification. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to receive pleasure, the intention to enjoy for self-gratification places us in opposition to Nature, the Creator. Therefore, by wanting to receive for ourselves we are separating ourselves from the Creator. This is our corruption, the reason for every misfortune and discontentment.

A Tikkun happens not when we stop receiving, but when we change the reason for which we are receiving, our intention. When we receive for ourselves, it is called “egoism.” When we receive in order to unite with the Creator, it is called “altruism,” meaning unity with Nature.

For example, would you enjoy eating the same food every day for months? Probably not. But this is exactly what babies are required to do. They have no choice in the matter. In fact, the only reason they agree to it is because they don’t know anything else. But surely there is only so much pleasure they can derive from eating, other than filling their empty stomachs.

Now, think of the baby’s mother. Imagine her face glowing as she is feeding her child. She is in heaven just watching her child eat healthily. The baby may (at most) be content, but the mother is elated.

Here’s what happens: Both the mother and the child enjoy the child’s desire for food. But while the child’s focus is on its own stomach, the mother’s pleasure is infinitely greater because of her delight in giving to her baby. Her focus is not on herself, but on her child.

It is the same with Nature. If we knew what Nature wanted of us, and fulfilled it, we would feel the pleasure of giving. Moreover, we would not feel it on the instinctive level that mothers naturally experience with their babies, but on the spiritual level of our bond with Nature.

In Hebrew—the original language of Kabbalah—an intention is called Kavana. Therefore, the Tikkun we need is to place the right Kavana over our desires. The reward for making a Tikkun and having a Kavana is the fulfillment of the last, the greatest of all wishes—the desire for spirituality, for the Creator. When this desire is fulfilled, one knows the system that controls reality, participates in its making, and eventually receives the keys and sits in the driver’s seat. Such a person will no longer experience life and death the way we do, but will effortlessly and joyfully flow through eternity in a never-ending stream of bliss and wholeness, united with the Creator.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.

If we look around, we can clearly see that we are not headed for a positive future. We’re in a crisis—a big one. Even if we haven’t been harmed by it, we have no guarantee we will remain unharmed. It appears that there is no area where the crisis has not left its mark, whether in our personal lives, the societies we live in, or in Nature.

Crises in and of themselves are not necessarily negative; they simply indicate that the present state of things has exhausted itself, and that it’s time to move on to the next phase. Democracy, the industrial revolution, women’s liberation, quantum physics, all of these appeared as results of crises in their fields. In fact, everything that exists today is the result of a past crisis.

Today’s crisis is not essentially different from previous ones; it is, however, far more intense, affecting the entire world. But like any crisis, it is an opportunity for change, a springboard for growth. If we choose correctly, all hardships could simply vanish. We could easily provide food, water, and shelter for the entire world. We could establish world peace and make this world a thriving, dynamic planet. But for that to happen, we must want to make it happen and choose what Nature wants us to choose—unity, instead of our present choice of separation.

Why, then, don’t we want to connect? Why are we alienating each other? The more we progress and the more knowledge we gain, the more discontented we become. We’ve learned how to build spaceships, how to build molecule-size robots; we have deciphered the entire human genome. Why then haven’t we learned how to be happy?

The more we’ll learn about Kabbalah, the more we’ll find that it always leads us to the root of things. Before it gives you any answers, it tells you why you are in your present state. And once you know the root of your situation, you will rarely need any further guidance. In that spirit, let’s see what we have been learning until today, and perhaps we will discover why we still haven’t discovered the key to happiness.

Behind Closed Doors

“Man… if he be insufficiently or ill-educated, he is the most savage of earthly creatures.”
–Plato, The Laws

Knowledge has always been considered an asset. Espionage is not an invention of modern times; it has been there since the dawn of history. But it has existed because knowledge has always been disclosed on a need-to-know basis, and the only dispute was about who needs to know.

In the past, the knowledgeable ones were called “sages,” and the knowledge they possessed was of Nature’s secrets. The sages hid their knowledge, fearing it might fall into the hands of those whom they considered unworthy.

But how do we determine who is entitled to know? Does the fact that I have some exclusive piece of information give me the right to hide it? Naturally, no person would agree that he or she is unworthy of knowing; hence we try to “steal” whatever information we want, and which isn’t openly accessible.

But that wasn’t always the case. Many years ago, before egoism reached its highest level, people considered the public’s benefit before they considered their own. They felt connected to the whole of Nature and to the whole of humanity, not to themselves. For them, this was the natural way to be.

But today, our considerations have changed drastically, and we believe that we are entitled to know everything and to do everything. This is what our level of egoism automatically dictates.

In fact, even before humanity reached the fourth level of desire, scholars had begun to sell their wisdom for material profits such as money, honor, and power. As material temptations grew, people could no longer keep to their modest way of life and turn their efforts entirely to researching Nature. Instead, these wise people began to use their knowledge to gain material pleasures.

Today, with the progress of technology and the heightened drive of our egos, misusing knowledge has become the norm. Yet, the more technology progresses, the more dangerous we are becoming to ourselves and to our surroundings. As we become more powerful, we are more tempted to use our power to get what we want.

As we have said before, the will to receive consists of four levels of intensity. The more powerful it becomes, the greater our social and moral decline. It is, therefore, no wonder that we’re in a crisis. It is also very clear why sages hid their knowledge, and why their own growing egoism now compels them to disclose it.

Without changing ourselves, knowledge and progress will not help us. They will only produce greater harm than they already have. Therefore, it would be grossly naive to expect scientific advancement to keep its promise of a good life. If we want a brighter future, we need only change ourselves.

The Evolution Of Desires

The statement that human nature is egoistic is unlikely to make any headlines. But because we are naturally egoistic, we are all, without exception, prone to misusing what we know. This need not mean that we will use knowledge to commit a crime. It can express itself in very small, seemingly trifle things, like getting promoted at work when we didn’t deserve it, or taking our best friend’s loved one away from them.

The real news about egoism is not that human nature is egoistic; it is that I am an egoist. The first time we confront our own egoism is quite a sobering experience. And like any sobering, it is a giant headache.

There is good reason why our will to receive constantly evolves, and we will touch upon it in a little while. But for now, let’s focus on the role of this evolution in how we acquire knowledge.

When a new desire appears, it creates new needs. And when we search for ways to satisfy these needs, we develop and improve our minds. In other words, it is the evolution of the will to receive pleasure that creates evolution.

A look at human history from the perspective of the evolution of desires shows how these growing desires generated every concept, discovery, and invention. Each innovation, in fact, has been a tool that helps us satisfy the mounting needs and demands our desires create.

Happiness or unhappiness, and pleasure or suffering depend on how much we satisfy our needs. But satisfaction requires effort. Actually, we are so pleasure-driven that, according to Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, “One cannot perform even the slightest movement without motivation … without somehow benefiting oneself.” Moreover, “When, for example, one moves one’s hand from the chair to the table it is because one thinks that by putting one’s hand on the table one will receive greater pleasure. If one did not think so, one would leave one’s hand on the chair for the rest of one’s life.”

In the post The Global Crisis Has A Happy End, we said that egoism is a Catch-22. In other words, the intensity of the pleasure depends on the intensity of the desire. As satiation increases, desire proportionally decreases. Therefore, when the desire is gone, so is the pleasure. It turns out that to enjoy something, we must not only want it, but keep wanting it, or the pleasure will fade away.

Moreover, the pleasure is not in the desired object; it’s in the one who wants the pleasure. For example: If I’m crazy about tuna, it doesn’t mean that the tuna has any pleasure within it, but that a pleasure in the “form” of tuna exists in me.

Ask any tuna if it enjoys its own flesh. I doubt it would answer positively. I might tactlessly ask the tuna, “But why aren’t you enjoying it? When I take a bite of you, it tastes so good… And you have tons of tuna! If I were you, I’d be in Heaven.”

Of course, we all know this is not a realistic dialogue, and not just because tuna don’t speak English. We instinctively feel that tuna fish can’t enjoy their own flesh, while humans can very much enjoy the taste of tuna.

Why this human enjoyment of the taste of tuna? Because we have a desire for it. The reason tuna fish can’t enjoy their own flesh is that they have no desire for it. A specific desire to receive pleasure from a specific object is called a Kli (vessel/tool), and reception of pleasure within the Kli is called Ohr (Light). The concept of the Kli and Ohr is unquestionably the most important concept in the wisdom of Kabbalah. When you can build a Kli, a vessel for the Creator, you will receive His Light.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.

1. The wisdom of Kabbalah (the wisdom of reception) first appeared about 5,000 years ago, when humans began to ask about the purpose of their existence. Those who knew it were called “Kabbalists,” and had the answer to life’s purpose and to the role of humanity in the universe.
2. But in those days, the desires of most people were too small to strive for this knowledge. So when Kabbalists saw that humanity did not need their wisdom, they hid it and secretly prepared it for a time when everyone would be ready for it. In the meantime, humanity cultivated other channels such as religion and science.
3. Today, when growing numbers of people are convinced that religion and science do not provide the answers to life’s deepest questions, they are beginning to look elsewhere for answers. This is the time that Kabbalah has been waiting for, and this is why it is reappearing—to provide the answer to the purpose of existence.
4. Kabbalah tells us that Nature, which is synonymous with the Creator, is whole, altruistic, and united. It tells us that we must not only understand Nature, but we must also want to implement this manner of existence within ourselves.
5. Kabbalah also tells us that by so doing we will not only equalize with Nature, we will understand the Thought that stands behind it—the Master Plan. Finally, Kabbalah states that by understanding the Master Plan, we will become equal to the Master Planner, and that this is the purpose of Creation—to equalize with the Creator.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.

The level of egoism in humanity has kept growing, with each level driving us farther away from Nature (the Creator). In Kabbalah, distance is not measured in inches or yards; it’s measured in qualities. The Creator’s quality is wholeness, connectedness, and giving, but it is only possible to feel Him when we share His qualities. If I am self-centered, there is no way I can connect to anything as whole and altruistic as the Creator. It would be like trying to see another person when we are standing back to back.

Because we are standing back to back with the Creator and because we still want to control Him, clearly, the more we try, the more frustrated we become. Certainly, we cannot control something we can’t see or even feel. This desire can never be filled unless we make a U-turn, look in the opposite direction, and find Him.

Many people are already growing tired of technology’s broken promises of wealth, health, and most important, safe tomorrows. Too few people have attained all these today, and even they cannot be certain they will still have them tomorrow. But the benefit of this state is that it forces us to reexamine our direction and ask, “Is it possible we’ve been treading the wrong path all along?”

Particularly today, as we acknowledge the crisis and the impasse we are facing, we can openly admit that the path we’ve chosen is a dead-end street. Instead of compensating for our self-centered oppositeness from Nature by choosing technology, we should have changed our egoism to altruism, and consequently to unity with Nature.

In Kabbalah, the term used for this change is Tikkun (correction). To realize our oppositeness from the Creator means that we must acknowledge the split that occurred among us (human beings) five thousand years ago. This is called “the recognition of evil.” It is not easy, but it is the first step to true health and happiness.

The Global Crisis Has A Happy End

Over the past 5,000 years, each of the two factions that tore from Mesopotamia evolved into a civilization of many different peoples. Of the two primary groups, one became what we refer to as “Western civilization,” and the other became what we know as “Eastern civilization.”

The worsening clash between the two civilizations reflects the culmination of the process that began at the first division. Five thousand years ago, a single nation was divided because egoism grew and separated its members. Now it is time for this “nation”—humanity—to reunite and become a single nation once again. We are still at the breaking point that occurred all those years ago, but today we are much more aware of it.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, this culture clash and the resurfacing of mystical beliefs that were abundant in ancient Mesopotamia mark the beginning of humanity’s reconnection into a new civilization. Today, we are beginning to realize that we are all connected and that we must rebuild the state that existed prior to the shattering. By rebuilding into a united humanity, we will also rebuild our connection with Nature, with the Creator.

Egoism Is A Catch-22

During the time when mysticism thrived, the wisdom of Kabbalah was discovered and provided knowledge about the stage-by-stage growth of our egoism and what causes it. Kabbalists taught that everything that exists is made of a desire for self-fulfillment.

However, these desires cannot be fulfilled in their natural form, when they are self-centered. This is because when we satisfy a desire, we cancel it, and if we cancel a desire for something, we can no longer enjoy it.

For example, think of your favorite food. Now, imagine yourself in a fancy restaurant, comfortably seated at a table as the smiling waiter brings you a covered plate, places it in front of you, and removes the lid. Hmmm… that deliciously familiar scent! Enjoying yourself yet? Your body does; that’s why it releases digestive juices at the mere thought of this dish.

But the minute you start eating, the pleasure diminishes. The fuller you become, the less pleasure you derive from eating. Finally, when you’ve had your fill, you can no longer enjoy the food, and you stop eating. You don’t stop because you’re full, but because eating is no fun on a full stomach. This is the Catch-22 of egoism—if you have what you want, you no longer want it.

Therefore, because we cannot live without pleasure, we must go on searching for new and greater pleasures. We do that by developing new desires, which will also remain unfulfilled. It’s a vicious circle. Clearly, the more we want, the emptier we feel. And the emptier we feel, the more frustrated we become.

And because we are now at the most intense level of desire in our history, we cannot avoid the conclusion that today we are more dissatisfied than ever before, even though we clearly have more than our fathers and our forefathers had. The contrast between what we have, on the one hand, and our growing dissatisfaction, on the other hand, is the essence of the crisis we are experiencing today. The more egoistic we become, the emptier we feel, and the worse is the crisis.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.

Kabbalah made its “debut” about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, an ancient country in today’s Iraq. Mesopotamia was not only the birthplace of Kabbalah, but of all ancient teachings and mysticism. In those days, people believed in many different teachings, often following more than one teaching at a time. Astrology, fortune-telling, numerology, magic, witchcraft, spells, evil eye—all those and more were developed and thrived in Mesopotamia, the cultural center of the ancient world.

As long as people were happy with their beliefs, they felt no need for change. People wanted to know that their lives would be safe, and what they needed to do to make them enjoyable. They were not asking about the origin of life, or most important, who or what had created the rules of life.

At first, this may seem like a slight difference. But actually, the difference between asking about life, and asking about the rules that shape life, is like the difference between learning how to drive a car and learning how to make one. It’s a totally different level of knowledge.

The Engine Of Change

Desires don’t just pop out of the blue. They form unconsciously within us and surface only when they become something definable, such as, “I want a pizza.” Before that, desires are either not felt, or at most, felt as general restlessness. We’ve all experienced that sense of wanting something but not quite knowing what it is. Well, it is a desire that has not yet ripened.

Plato once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and he was right. Similarly, Kabbalah teaches us that the only way we can learn anything is by first wanting to learn it. It’s a very simple formula: when we want something, we do what it takes to get it. We make the time, muster the energy, and develop the necessary skills. It turns out that the engine of change is desire.

The way our desires evolve both defines and designs the entire history of humanity. As humankind’s desires developed, they urged people to study their environment so they could fulfill their wishes. Unlike minerals, plants, and animals, people constantly evolve. For every generation, and for each person, desires grow stronger and stronger.

Taking The Driver’s Seat

This engine of change—desire—is made of five levels, zero through four. Kabbalists refer to this engine as “a will to receive pleasure,” or simply, “the will to receive.” When Kabbalah first appeared, some 5,000 years ago, the will to receive was at level zero. Today, as you might have guessed, we are at level four—the most intense level.

But in the early days when the will to receive was at level zero, desires were not strong enough to separate us from Nature and from each other. In those days, this oneness with Nature, which today many of us pay good money to re-learn in meditation classes (and let’s face it, not always successfully) was the natural way of life. People didn’t know any other way. They didn’t even know that they could be separated from Nature, nor did they want to be.

In fact, in those days, humanity’s communication with Nature and with each other flowed so seamlessly, words were not even necessary; instead, people communicated by thought, much like telepathy. It was a time of unity, and the whole of humanity was like a single nation.

But while still in Mesopotamia, a change occurred: people’s desires started to grow and they became more egoistic. People began to want to change Nature and use it for themselves. Instead of wanting to adapt themselves to Nature, they began wanting to change Nature to fit their needs. They grew detached from Nature, separated and alienated from it and from each other. Today, many, many centuries later, we are discovering that this was not a good idea. It simply doesn’t work.

Naturally, as people began to place themselves in opposition to their environment and their societies, they no longer related to others as kin and to Nature as home. Hatred replaced love, and people grew apart and became detached from one another.

In consequence, the single nation of the ancient world was divided. It first split into two groups that drifted to the east and to the west. The two groups continued to divide and splinter, eventually forming the multitude of nations we have today.

One of the most obvious symptoms of the division, which the Bible describes as “The Fall of the Tower of Babel,” was the creation of different languages. These different languages disconnected people from each other and created confusion and malfunction. The Hebrew word for confusion is Bilbul, and to mark the confusion, the capital of Mesopotamia received the name, Babel (Babylon).

Ever since that split—when our desires grew from level zero to level one—we have been confronting Nature. Instead of correcting the ever-growing egoism to remain as one with Nature, that is, with the Creator, we have built a mechanical, technological shield to protect us from it. The initial reason we developed science and technology was to secure our shielded existence away from Nature’s elements. It turns out, however, that whether we are aware of it or not, we are actually trying to control the Creator and take over the driver’s seat.

The above text was taken from the book Kabbalah Revealed: A Guide To A More Peaceful Life by Dr. Michael Laitman with foreword by Prof. Ervin Laszlo. Also available as eBook (PDF, Kindle & ePub formats), and for free PDF download.